THE ANSWERS FOR SCHOOLS AREN’T JUST IN FINLAND OR SINGAPORE.
I spent some time talking with Linda Blackford, the local column writer for the Lexington Herald Leader. She wrote a piece based on our conversation entitled The answers for Kentucky schools aren’t in Finland or Singapore. ‘You just have to go to Beaumont.’
Last year, University of Kentucky professor Wayne Lewis took an unpaid leave of absence from the College of Education to become state education commissioner, hired by Gov. Matt Bevin’s charter school-loving board to finally enact a Koch-fueled dream of publicly funded private schools throughout throughout the Commonwealth.This summer, Lewis got a new boss at UK, who arrived just as he happened to publish a research paper that found segregation is more intense in charter schools than public schools in general. Julian Vasquez Heilig, 44, the new dean of the UK College of Education, said the timing was coincidental, but the research is clear and compelling.“We know from the research that diversity and integration is good for all kids,” Vasquez Heilig said in an interview a few days before classes start at UK. “We have to decide for ourselves whether we prefer a Balkanized society or a diverse society. That’s a decision we’re going to have to make.”Vasquez isn’t afraid of talking about provocative subjects; in the past seven years, his blog, Cloaking Inequity has taken on numerous controversial topics, such as why pro-charter school research frequently comes from organizations that already support them.He’s a bold, interesting choice for UK, an institution that has traditionally preferred not to tangle with the legislative and executive branches that used to fund it. Certainly, his credentials are impressive: the University of Michigan for undergraduate and Stanford University for his masters and Ph.D., then a stint at the University of Texas before becoming a professor of educational leadership and policy studies and director of the Doctorate in Educational Leadership program at California State University, Sacramento.He’s not a total stranger to Lexington; he’s been coming here since 1993 when his uncle moved here to work for IBM. He sees Kentucky as a challenge to himself and the College of Education, which he says must make itself more visible and available in important policy discussions around the state.“We want to make sure we’re not the ivory tower where Rapunzel rarely lets down her hair,” he said. “We want to be community engaged and community relevant … UK as one of the lead institutions has an important CONTINUE READING:The answers for schools aren’t just in Finland or Singapore. | Cloaking Inequity